


The Cold Case of Frankie Doe

by ChubbySluggie



Category: Original Work
Genre: Body Horror, Body mutilation, Crime Documentary, Crime Report, Crime Scenes, Ghosts, Ghoul, Ghouls, Horror, Murder, Mutilation, Other, Supernatural - Freeform, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:14:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29045982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChubbySluggie/pseuds/ChubbySluggie
Summary: A body was found beneath the icy waters of a lake unlike any other investigators had ever seen.A cold case that will never be solved, because the people involved may not really want to know the answers...
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	The Cold Case of Frankie Doe

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while ago, the last time I was invested in listening to a bunch of True crime podcasts and youtubers. It's supposed to be in the style of a documentary, with a supernatural twist towards the end. It's an original story, so I don't really expect many people to read, and if no one is interested I'll probably just delete it at some point, but it is something I'm still quite proud of... so let me know if you do like it!;;
> 
> //maybe I'll even write more short horror stories in the future//
> 
> TW - Murder, Body horror, Body parts, Mutilation, Possible drowning, Freezing, Death, Underage Drinking

It was one of the warmer nights of winter, white sludge was dripping off the tree branches like the dead husks of the invertebrates it once captured. The forested area just twenty-four miles from Markdale, in rural Ontario, was poking out beneath its heavy frosting; acres of land left open and sparse between the few cabins and homes that jutted up from the ground, separated by miles of trees. It was January 1994, a group of friends sat by one of those cabins; looking out at the lake in front of them. Michael Snider, 20; Alice Baxter, 19; Michelle Andrews, 19; Nigel Mason, 20 and Caroline-Brooke Holmes, 21; were visiting the cabin for one final bit of freedom before cracking down for college finals. The cabin was owned by Michael’s grandparents; avid hunters who stayed there 4 months out of the year.

_The group was wrapped in warm coats, sitting by the frozen lakeside, around a fire pit. Caroline had stopped to buy some alcohol before the trip, for her underage friends. The group was enjoying a short break from college life before finals started. Michael and Alice split off from the group for a while and walked over to the edge of the lake to talk in private._

“ _You said you’d have time for me this weekend.” She tried to snarl aggressively, but it came across as a more dejectedly flat statement. She wasn’t sure how many times she’d said variations of that same sentence in the last two years._

“ _Babe… Come on. I will make the time. Just… I promised Nigel I’d—”_

“ _Yeah. Save it.” She stopped him, looking down at her feet._

“ _Look. You’re the one who wanted to talk… but if you’re gonna be on my case like that then what’s the fucking point?!” He snapped at her before stormed off onto the frozen lake._

_Alice hesitated before running after him, shouting for him to come back. That got the attention of the rest of the group. Alice walked a few steps onto the ice, her feet stuttering to a halt as she looked down at them._

“ _Michael!” She shouted, looking up at him nervously. In response he just held out his arms in a mocking tone._

“ _Michael don’t be a dipshit! Get your drunk ass back here!” Caroline called from the edge of the lake._

_All of them had to hold in gasps and an urge to jump back when Michael suddenly slipped and shouted, falling on his knees. He stayed in place for a good few minutes, seemingly unable to move. The others began to worry if there was a crack forming. Relief flooded them all when they saw him slowly stand up and stiffly walk back. He was ghost white._

_The group eventually got the story from their friend; he claimed that after he and Alice fought, he’d walked out onto the lake and seen a face. A face under the ice. Certain that the ice was thick enough now, Nigel and Caroline decided to go and look – full well expecting to find an oddly shaped rock, or some poor frozen fish._

To investigators, Michael eventually claimed that after he and Alice fought, he’d walked out onto the lake. He’d been about to turn back, his anger dissipating and the danger of the frozen water beneath him dawning on him when he looked down; only to see the face staring back at him. Not believing him at first, Nigel and Caroline went to inspect the face for themselves; carefully stepping onto the lake; but certain that it was safe enough after supporting Michael without so much as a crack. This time both accounts state the same thing: they saw a hand reaching for the surface of the lake, and a pale face just behind it; staring out at them. The only difference in accounts are as follows: Caroline claims the face was expressionless, with eyes that were unfocused and completely empty; Nigel swears that the face was twisted in anger and scowling.

It was three hours later when the police were finally called, and the body was reported. The woman lay there under a thick sheet of ice, her thin frame was wrapped in a short grey dress that blended almost perfectly with her skin. She was found in a stiff position, with her arms rigidly by her side and her legs dangling, bent at the knee, below her. Her slightly swollen limbs suggested she had been dead before being put into the water and frozen. Investigators noted that there were no signs of struggle evident at first glance on the body. Nothing else was found at the scene, backing up the theory that she had been moved to the area after her murder.

The body was fished out from the lake with careful precision, and sent to the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Ontario, where decomposition specialist Doctor Yin Cheng was able to confirm that the body had been frozen in the lake mere hours after death and had stayed in the frozen lake until the warmer weather had begun to melt it; causing the corpse to float to the top of the lake and stay there until found by Michael Snider and his friends. Doctor Cheng then made a rather unusual discovery – some of the body parts recovered did not belong to the body recovered. There were no stitches or scars suggesting the body parts were grafted on. She requested the further examination of the body, from her colleagues, but all state that it would appear as though the limbs had always belonged to the body; there was no sign of attachment at all. However, after re-testing the blood and finger prints preserved on the victim, it was proven that the right hand was from the same body as the torso and head; but that every other limb had come from elsewhere. This earned the body of the young woman found in that cold lake the name ‘Frankie Doe’ or ‘The Frankenstein Doe’. Frankie Doe was confirmed to be a Caucasian female and believed to be between the ages twenty to twenty-five, with the blood type A. However, both the arms, the left hand and left knee cap were all found to belong to a female body with Caucasian genes and a blood type of O, given the name ‘Victim B’ for shorthand. Further to this, the bulk of the left leg and the entire right leg were found to belong to a Caucasian female with AB blood type, given the name ‘Victim C’. After further examination, the size of the muscles and joints in Victim Cs legs, were found to suggest a much younger age, making her most likely around 12-15. At least half of the teeth in the Doe’s mouth were found to be much too small for those of an adult, suggesting these were also from Victim C.

The area was searched for the other bodies, but no further traces were found. Still Dr Cheng; there was just something about the body that made her want answers – it was an enigma that she both felt needed to be solved. Detectives continued to question the owners of the cabins in the surrounding 100-mile radius, as well as missing persons reports from all over Ontario – to no avail. None of the missing women matched their Doe. Cheng worked long nights in the lab, often going over the body time and time again. Colleagues reported around that time that it was like she was obsessed. Her family and friends began to worry but then, out of nowhere, she suddenly dropped it and the case was finally and officially cold.

No one knows exactly why she suddenly lost any interest she held before, but a close friend of Dr Cheng confided in one of her colleagues she was worried about her not too long after. The friend claimed that Cheng had told her a story when she’d taken her for a drink to get out of the house. As told, Cheng was apparently working late again in the lab one night when she began to hear noises from the freezer where the bodies were kept. When entering the room, nothing seemed out of the ordinary; she even opened some of the drawers to double check that none of the bodies or other evidence had been taken. Deciding that it was most likely time to get some sleep, she returned to her desk and sat down to start packing her things away and return home.

As her finger found the power button for her laptop, she felt something cold brush against her ankle, sending a shudder through her body. Then it grabbed her.

Reflexively, she looked down and found the face of Frankie Doe inches looking up at her from between her legs. The wide eyes held no comprehension, the skin dipping into her sockets, and her mouth parted slightly, letting out the putrid air inside. Cheng said that the hand on her ankle was the coldest thing she had ever felt in her life, and the feeling lasted for hours afterwards until she was able to take a warm bath. It felt like long coils of sharp ice was piercing her muscles and bone, and it was cold to the touch of her hand.

“Let me guess, you blinked, and she was gone?”

“No.” Stated Cheng. The friend describes her looking as though she was somewhere else in that moment, and said she felt as though the doctor was staring straight through her.

“No” Cheng repeated, “ _She let go and crawled back inside her drawer_.”


End file.
